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After today’s 7-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, the Oakland Athletics have now lost four straight and eight of their last nine after beginning the season 12-4.
However, third baseman Josh Donaldson has put together a particularly impressive few weeks of baseball: today, he went 4-4 with 2 RBIs and a great defense play in foul territory. Overall, Donaldson has hit .397 over the past 17 games, exhibiting more patience and versatility at the plate than he did last season when he was a key contributor to the A’s second-half surge en route to a division title.
It’s no surprise that the A’s have struggled without Yoenis Cespedes anchoring the cleanup spot and left field position — since last season, the team has gone 90-48 with him in the lineup but just 17-32 without him. It’s probably not in the team’s best interest to rely so heavily on one player, but his bat and general presence in the clubhouse tends to help the rest of the A’s relax and stay comfortable in their own roles on the team.
It always seems as if Cespedes’ presence lessens the load on right fielder Josh Reddick, who is still struggling to find his stroke in 2013 and should presumably be aided greatly by Cespedes’ return, which will hopefully take place for tomorrow afternoon’s game against the Orioles.
The A’s usually get off to a slow start in April, so their current 13-12 record isn’t as bad as it has been in past seasons — but of course it seems worse lately, considering they’ve gone 1-8 since the hot 12-4 start.
To his credit, though, Donaldson is doing his best to help the team win, both with the bat and glove, which has definitely shown a lot of improvement. If he’s able to keep up this pace, he might end up having himself a nice breakout season.
Adrian Garro is an Oakland Athletics writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter and/ or add him to your network on Google.
